


I've Seen This All Before

by OneMoreNight1996



Series: axgweek 2020 [5]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Family, Some Fluff, working through emotions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:01:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25750267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneMoreNight1996/pseuds/OneMoreNight1996
Summary: Gendry and Arya's relationship from the perspective of Lyanna and Ned Stark.Written for axgweek Day 5: Deja Vu
Relationships: Arya Stark/Gendry Waters
Series: axgweek 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1861408
Comments: 5
Kudos: 148





	I've Seen This All Before

**Author's Note:**

> This one is just short and sweet but I hope you guys like it anyway.

The first time that Arya brought Gendry home Ned knew immediately who his father was, though Gendry seemed unaware of it, and seeing them together was like seeing ghosts of the past. The relationship between Lyanna and Robert, specifically the way it ended, had put a distance between him and his once close friend and also made his first interactions with Gendry a bit distant and shaky. More than anything, he didn't want to see history repeat itself.

He'd worried about her when she was young as she always seemed to go against what anyone told her to do, sometimes just for spite rather than a real desire to do whatever it was, so he said nothing about the doubts he had for her relationship. He'd thought, foolishly, that maybe their relationship was just a passing fancy and would fizzle out naturally on it's own but he'd been wrong. In her second year of university, despite her mother's protests of her being too young, she made the choice to move in with Gendry. He'd just graduated from college himself and secured a job close to the campus. He hadn't liked it but she was an adult and he couldn't really do anything about it.

Over time though, Gendry proved to be nothing like his father at all despite being a spitting image of him when he was young and Ned could tell that his daughter loved him with all of her heart and he loved her the same. It was obvious that she didn't care that their flat was tiny or that their money stretched thin by the end of the month, she was content with the life she was building with him. It was because of this that Ned stopped seeing ghosts when he looked at them and just started seeing his daughter and her boyfriend.

After that, it became much easier for him to see Gendry as his own person and treat him as such. Their relationship improved markedly after that and he even apologized about the way he'd acted before which had led to a long discussion in which Ned revealed what he knew about his father. Robert and Gendry, for their part, only met once and that was enough for Gendry's temper to boil over enough that he resolved to never speak to the man again. Ned felt sorry for his old friend and what he'd let himself become but he did nothing to sway Gendry to see him again knowing that that choice laid with Gendry himself.

After Gendry and Arya had been dating two years, Ned let go of the notion that it was a passing fancy and sat Gendry down for another serious talk that had nothing to do with his parentage and everything to do with his relationship with Arya. Gendry had been polite throughout the whole conversation and had spoken earnestly to Ned, answering whatever questions he had and listening to what he had to say. At the end of the conversation, Gendry had looked at him seriously and said _'I intend to marry your_ _daughter one day Mr. Stark, if she'll have me.'_

That was the day that Ned knew for certain that Arya and Gendry's relationship would not end up the same as Lyanna and Robert's had because for all Robert talked about wanting to marry Lyanna, he had never said it in the way that Gendry did. Open and honest and _sure_.

The one thing that swayed both he and Catelyn, as well as the rest of their family, to Gendry's side was seeing the look on his face when he saw Arya. His face would go soft any time he looked at her, even after two years of dating, and the love he felt would be obvious to anyone looking at him. Though his and Gendry's relationship started off rocky, seeing the love that the man had for his daughter was enough to smooth it out and in the end he was glad that she'd found someone who looked at her like she was the most amazing thing in the world.

* * *

The first time she saw them together, it was Christmas and she'd finally gotten a chance to spend it with her family for the first time in a few years as her work had been put on pause. When she saw the man who looked so much like Robert Baratheon in his youth with his arm wrapped around her niece, it took everything inside her not to make a scene, though nothing stopped her from going to Ned about it.

Her brother was less than helpful, telling her that she needed to calm down and get to know Gendry before she judged him, and she almost wanted to throttle him. Couldn't he see what was happening? Couldn't he see where it was going?

She knew about Gendry. Of course she did, she and Arya spoke all the time, but she'd never met him or even seen a picture of him before now. More than that, everyone had neglected to tell her that he was Robert's son, though they all seemed to know. She made the decision then, despite Ned's insistence that Gendry was a good man, that she would keep an eye on him throughout the month that she'd be staying during the holiday.

He seemed uncomfortable around her, which she took as a sign that he was hiding something even when Catelyn told her that it was likely because she glared at him any time he entered a room. She wasn't about to apologize for it, she would protect Arya even if no one else thought she needed it. She was familiar with his father and the ease in which he hid things from her when they were together even when he was out every other night cheating on her. She'd been naive then but she wasn't now.

The problem with her theory that he was just like his father came rather quickly. He and Arya were also spending the month with her family and staying in the house just as she and everyone else was and therein lied the problem. Robert had always lied to her and told her that he was working when he would go out to cheat on her but Gendry seemed to never leave the house without Arya or one of her siblings, she'd even seen Jon go along with him a few times, and he spent the holiday working from home.

She knew from Arya that he worked for an architecture firm where he drew up plans for buildings and houses which she saw him working on a few times on his computer before he'd email them in. If he never left the house by himself, he obviously couldn't be cheating on Arya so her theory lost some of it's traction but that didn't mean she gave up on watching him. Only this time, she paid close attention to how he interacted with Arya, still certain that something about their relationship was off.

When she began observing them intently any time they were together though, she quickly came to realize that maybe her brother had been right all along and she had let her relationship with Gendry's father sour her opinion of him.

When they were together, they moved like a couple who'd been together for far longer than they actually had. They always seemed aware of where the other person was even without looking which spoke to a deeper intimacy than she was expecting and the casual touches gave another layer to that. They touched each other gently and sometimes it seemed that they weren't even aware themselves that they'd reached out for one another.

The next thing she noticed was the way they talked to one another, it was like they had their own language. Many times she witnessed one of them speak and the other respond without even needing a full sentence. It was like a verbal shorthand that only they could understand and she found it strangely fascinating to just listen to them talk to each other. Sometimes, they seemed to be in their own world, utterly unaware of anyone else in the room.

The last thing she noticed about them that made her realize for sure that their relationship was completely different from her own with his father was the way they looked at each other. Their gazes were soft when they looked at one another and the love they had for each other seemed to glow from beneath their skin. She knew what she was witnessing between them was something rare and precious and she didn't have it in her to wreck that.

 _Robert never looked at me like that_.

It was obvious that she'd judged wrong from the start, she could admit that. Her realization that she'd been a bit of a bitch towards Gendry prompted her to swallow her pride and apologize to him. She knew, just from looking at them, that he'd be a part of the Stark family for a long time to come so clearing the air between them was the best choice she could make. He took her apology better than she expected.

As she looked at them together, she found herself sending a prayer up to the Gods.

 _Let them be better than we were_.

Somehow, she knew they would be.


End file.
